


Translation

by Wagnetic



Category: due South
Genre: Communication, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 01:15:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1038592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wagnetic/pseuds/Wagnetic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their communication still needs a little work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Translation

Fraser won’t be the first one to say it. It’s not that he harbors any kind of distrust for Ray, but he has so little experience in voicing these things and the one time that he tried… Well, it doesn’t bear thinking. Ray is the expert in intuition and expression, and while he lacks Fraser’s extensive vocabulary, he has always been both eloquent and outspoken in matters of… Matters of emotion. Ray embraces all feeling in a way that constantly amazes Fraser. He feels everything deeply and he doesn’t hide it from himself or anyone else, and Fraser has admired that from the first. No doubt Ray will say it soon and in doing so he’ll teach Fraser how it should be said. If Ray says it first, maybe it will be safe for Fraser to say it back. Maybe it won’t hurt him this time. If there’s anyone in the world Fraser can trust to have that power over him and not abuse it, it’s Ray, but still the thought is disquieting to say the least.

And yet, despite having been the one to initiate their new physical closeness, Ray hasn’t said anything. He still calls Fraser “buddy” and slaps him on the back to congratulate him on the completion of a case, just like he always has. It’s as though nothing has changed between them, and though Fraser knows that Ray is more than capable of strong romantic attachment, he isn’t so naive as to think that romantic attachment always goes hand-in-hand with physical intimacy. Still, this doesn’t feel like a casual thing between them—not with how long it took them to build up to this, and not with the way Ray holds him tight long after they’re both spent—but it’s entirely possible that Fraser’s read the signs incorrectly. He knows so little about this, after all. Still, the longer this thing between them goes on, the more concerned he becomes. He doesn’t know what to make of it, and he doesn’t know how to ask. Diefenbaker is convinced that Fraser needs to take the initiative, but Fraser counters that Diefenbaker’s knowledge of human mating and courtship behaviors is even more lacking than his own. He ignores the half-wolf’s implication of cowardice and makes up his mind to wait. Fraser is a patient man, after all.

Or rather, he thought he was. He’s a patient tracker and he can stay perfectly still for as long as he is required when on guard duty, but apparently his patience doesn’t extend to this. When he is in Ray’s bed with Ray’s mouth on his and Ray’s hands all over his body, he loses all semblance of his hard-won discipline. It’s shocking to be so open and vulnerable, but he is powerless stop it. He clutches Ray desperately and then squeezes his eyes shut as if a lack of visual stimulus could provide some kind of protection. He gasps between kisses and bites his lips to keep his words at bay, but ultimately it does no good. Ray’s hands, long-fingered with prominent joints, hands that Fraser would recognize from the specific placement of calluses alone, stroke from the pulse-point at the base of Fraser’s throat down and over his abdomen. They settle firmly over Fraser’s hipbones and then Ray squeezes and Fraser’s mouth opens. He only means to catch his breath, but instead the words struggle out of him. They catch on his teeth and on the tip of his tongue. They stick to his lips as he tries to hold them in, but they still come.

“Tell me,” Fraser pants, “Tell me, please tell me, Ray, say it, say it to me—”

Ray moves his hands back up until they rest on Fraser’s pecs and he sits back a little, straddling Fraser’s thighs. His eyes have a darkly mischievous set to them. “What do you want me to tell you, Frase? How amazing you look all spread out like this for me? What I’m gonna do to you next?”

Of course Fraser does want to know, but, “Not that. Tell me—Ray, I have to know—”

“That you’re the most attractive guy I ever met? That I’ve been fantasizing about touching you since day one?”

Fraser can’t help trying to push up into Ray’s touch as it’s offered. “No,” he says. “I mean yes, of course yes, but—”

“That I want you to fuck me just as much as I want to fuck you?”

Fraser groans and his thoughts go a little hazy for a moment. Ray is open in this respect too. Ray can say these crude words so easily, but they don’t sound crude when Ray says them like this. They sound wonderful. Honest. For all the defensive posturing he does in public, the Steve McQueen strut and bravado, in private Ray is unfailingly honest.

“Why?”

Ray traces his hands down Fraser’s body again with a light touch that makes him tingle. “What do you mean ‘why?’ We’re partners. Really partners in _everythin_ g, yeah? I wanna share all of that with you. If there’s something you’re not ok with then we won’t do it, but I want to do everything if you want it too.”

“But why?” Fraser presses. Ray trails a hand lightly over his erection and Fraser lets himself press into the caress for a moment before he pulls Ray’s hand away and draws it up to press against his cheek. He needs to show Ray that this isn’t just about sex. Ray’s eyes go soft, and of course Fraser should have known to communicate this way, to tell Ray what he needs with a gesture instead of with words. Honest and kinetic. Ray has always been far more proficient in the physicality of expression.

It seems that Ray is having a similar revelation because he strokes the sweat-slick hair back from Fraser’s temple and plants a kiss there before drawing back to look him in the eyes. “Oh Frase,” he says, “Ben, I’ve been telling you. I just didn’t do it right. I didn’t say it how you’d understand.” He strokes his thumb over Fraser’s cheek and shows him his very sweetest smile. “I wanna do all of that with you because that— the give and take, I mean— that’s buddies and more. That’s trust. That’s partners. It’s not just fucking, you know? It’s… How would you say it?” He pauses, wrinkles appearing on his face as he works to find the right words. “It’s a physical demonstration of a greater emotional connection,” he says at last. And then he smiles again and says, “Or in my simple terms, it’s about love. It’s ‘cause I love you.”

Fraser is helpless against those words and that smile. “Yes,” he says. “I love you. I love you.” As it turns out, those words aren’t hard to say at all.

Ray kisses him and kisses him, and finally Fraser is the one to roll them over and break away. He gives the corner of Ray’s mouth one last teasing lick and says, “Since you said it so eloquently for me, let me put it into action for you.”

“Yeah,” Ray pants, grinning up at him. “Translate it back for me.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Podfic of 'Translation' by Wagnetic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8815165) by [mific](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mific/pseuds/mific)




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